Business journals (newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals) can fall into three categories. How do you tell them apart?
| Popular | Professional/Trade | Scholarly/Academic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | To inform and entertain the reader | To apply information; to provide professional support | To communicate research and scholarly ideas |
| Audience | General Public | Practitioners in the field or industry | Other scholars, students |
| Characteristics | Short articles summarizing research/issues | May have short articles summarizing issues, as well as in depth features. | Long articles; in-depth coverage of research/study |
| Few, if any, bibliographic references | Few bibliographic references | Many bibliographic references | |
| Many ads and photos | Some industry/professional focused ads. Amount of photography/graphics vary | Few ads; few photos unless related to research | |
| Issued daily, weekly, or monthly | Usually issued monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually | Often issued quarterly, semi-annually, or annualy | |
| Examples | Fortune, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal | Harvard Business Review, Oil & Gas Journal | Journal of Accounting Literature |
